The Sanitarium
by christyzachman
Summary: On their way to talk to a serial killer they crash into a snowbank and walk to a strange building for help. What happened in this building?
1. Snow Bank

Untitled

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter One. The Snowbank

The car moved on the black tar heading into the mountains of West Virginia to the federal prison. Two members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit are heading there to interview with a serial killer who agreed to participate in the VICAP project. The day was cloudy and grey with snowflakes falling slowly and consistently. The mood in the black SUV was somber and quiet as the men drove in comfortable silence.

"Uh, Hotch?"

"Yeah, what is it Reid?"

"Do you know when we will get to the next town?"

"About thirty miles, why?"

"Ew, that far."

"What is it Reid?"

"Hotch, we gotta find someplace, I gotta go." The driver looks at his passenger in exasperation and a little amusement.

"Why didn't you go when we stopped at that service station in the last town?"

"I didn't need to go then. But I really gotta go badly now."

"Can it wait until the next town, it's should only be about 40 minutes away."

The man groaned.

"Maybe not. You should have gone even if you didn't need to. I didn't think I was supposed to remind you like I do with Jack."

"Very funny. Do you think there might be a house or something along the way that we might be able to stop at?"

"I don't know, this is a sparsely populated area."

All of a sudden the vehicle began to slide on a patch of black ice, Hotch struggled to keep the vehicle on the road and in control but they hit another patch and went straight into the snowbank on the side of the road. Both men hit the dashboard just before the air bags deployed holding them into their seats. After A few minutes the men began to stir from the feeling of hitting a wall.

"Reid, are you okay? Do you still have to go?"

"I am okay and no I don't have to go right now. Where are we?"

"We are about 26 miles away from the next town and 12 miles from the town behind us. I haven't seen any houses or buildings behind us but I don't know about what might be ahead of us. Do you feel up to a walk to see if we can find something or do you want to stay here and see if we can get the car out of this snowbank."

"It is still snowing out there do you think it is going to get worse?"

"Yeah, I think so but staying might not help us either. We haven't seen any other cars coming by in either direction. We can try to dig ourselves out before we can trudge someplace that might have a land line phone. My cell isn't working about yours?"

"No, I am not getting any signal either. I guess the crash detector is also not working."

"Doesn't seem to be. What would you like to do?"

"Let's try to dig out and if that doesn't work, we can walk."

"Sounds like a plan." The men get out and go to check the back of the SUV and discover there is not shovel or anything to use to dig out with. They decided to take their go bags and walk, abandoning the vehicle. Figuring one way was as good as the other and that they don't remember seeing anything from the way they came they walk toward the next town.

They walk a half a mile and discover a driveway off to the right. They look down and don't see the end of the drive to where it leads. After a minute of discussion they decide to tackle the drive. The snow is falling harder and visibility is becoming more difficult. The men trudge through the unplowed snowy driveway for another half mile before they finally begin to see a building. The building looks like a vision from the Victorian age when the houses where large and extremely imposing. It was a dark and dismal looking edifice with six gables and seven bay windows peering out at the them. If you were so inclined you could almost see the ghosts of people through the dark windows. The site was welcoming to our wet and snowblind agents. If they had seen it in a different light and when they were not tired, cold and wet they would have fled from the imposing dark building.

The men walk up to the front porch and bang the lion's head doorknocker. They stand and wait for an answer which never comes. It seems that no one is currently living here. In profiling the building as it is they believe that the owners might have left a key in the area outside the door and begin to look around. They are lucky because in a small bird feeder next to the bench on the porch a rusty old skeleton style key was found. They try it on the door and it turned the tumblers. It would take the strength and muscles of both men pushing on the door to get it to open far enough for them to squeeze through. It squealed and squeaked the entire time.

When they got inside into the foyer, Hotch looked around for a light switch and found one which turned on the foyer chandelier. They felt very luck about that and then turned to close the door to keep out the snow and wind. If they had any clue what this building was and what await them, they would have gone back out to face the snow and wind.

It seems that the men have encountered a former sanitarium for the severely mentally handicapped and that the spirits of those who died there are still present and that is why the building was closed thirty five years ago and has not been inhabited since then. There is a caretaker which lives in a small house a half mile away. Although there has been talk to tear it down the owners still won't do it.

What will happen to these men as they enter this building and learn of the horrors that went on there?

.


	2. No Underwear

Untitled

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter Two. No Underwear

The men were in the foyer shivering from the wet clothes on their bodies.

Hotch yells out, "Is there anybody here? Hellooo?"

Spencer is looking around and trying to see what there is to identify the place and its purpose for being this far away from civilization. There is a foyer with some side tables and a row bench. Some magazines are on the table which are dusty and appear to haven't been touched in years. The dates on them are from the nineteen seventies and one has a picture of the Fonz from Happy Days while another magazine has a picture of troops in Vietnam showing on it. As he walks around, he does begin to shiver from the chill in the air and then notices a radiator at the end of the room. He walks over and sees if he can turn it on, but it looks like they would have to turn on the boiler but where would that be? He goes into another room and looks around at the several desks in the center and file cabinetry along the wall. He goes over to the cabinets and opens up to begin to read the files that are in there.

Aaron has been calling out and walks through the foyer into a hall that leads into the bowels of the house. There is the office area that Spencer goes into on the left and to the right is a staircase leading upstairs. Further down the hall, he comes to a large cafeteria style dining room with small tables and four chairs around each table. There appeared to be about twenty tables and a door leading to another room which turns out to be a kitchen. Surprisingly, each room that he goes into has electric lights which have been going on when he finds the switches along the wall. Where is the electric coming from and can he find an electric heater because he is freezing and shivering in his still wet clothes. He heads back to the office where Spencer is still shivering and reading.

"We need to get out of these wet clothes before we get hypothermia. Where are the go bags?"

"I think they are still out in the foyer."

The men head back out and grab the bags to take back into the office which seems a little warmer than the foyer. Opening the bags, they discover that they are not as waterproof as the manufacturers claim. It seems all of the clothes are cold and wet or damp; from the underwear to the outerwear, nothing was dry. Groaning the men take the bags and go out of the office to find a place where they might be able to hang them up and dry them. They go back to the kitchen and turn on the gas stove but there doesn't seem to be any gas as it didn't light up.

"The electricity works but not the gas, weird." Says Spencer.

"Let's see what else we can find."

The men go into another room which holds three washers and four dryers all run on gas, not electricity so they are also not functioning, but there was also a line hanging up for with clothes pins so the men were able to hang up all of their wet clothes to dry. They didn't yet strip down because they did not want to run around in the chill air without anything on. After hanging up the clothes from their bags they go into the room next to the laundry room and found shelves full of what appeared to be fleece pajamas with attached feet. They walk past the shelves to see what they could find.

Spencer says, "They aren't exactly what I would choose to wear but they are dry and appear to be warming."

"Are you saying you want to try one on?"

""Well, like I said, it would be nice to be warm and dry."

"I agree but do you think they would have our sizes."

"Actually yeah I do. When I was in the office reading I learned that this was a place for people with severe learning and emotional disabilities. Most of the people would be admitted when they enter puberty and stay until they died, usually as a young adult. Most never lived past thirty, but there were a few who survived to the early forties, no one ever made it to fifty years old. The majority would barely be able to walk and talk let alone be able to provide or take care of themselves. So I am sure that these would probably fit us because they are made for adults to wear."

"Do you see any underwear around here?"

"I don't think that they have underwear, from what I read the residents didn't wear underwear because everyone was incontinent."

"There is not underwear?"

"I don't think so."

"Before we change clothes, let's at least look."

The men enter the next room and do not find underwear but do find a room of cloth diapers and rubber pants. There are several tables with one inch waterproof pads on them. It seems that residents were always in diapers and this was where they were cleaned up and placed in clean diapers and the common clothes of the house which was in the room that they had been.

"I think I will just go without underwear, what do you say?"

"Yeah, me too."

They head back to the other room and begin to look for something that was in their respective sizes so that they can get into something drier and stop shivering. Hotch finds a light blue colored feet attached sleeper style pajama with an orange lamb on its left breast. The zipper went down to his mid thigh and went completely up to the neck. He goes back into the room with the diapers for some privacy while he removes his wet clothes to change into the dry sleeper. He looks at himself in the mirror that is in the room and says to himself, I look like Jack when he is ready to go to bed. He would probably laugh at me right now.

Reid is in the other room and changes into a green sleeper style pajama with feet attached and has a purple dog on its left breast. The zipper goes down to his mid thing and completely up to the neck. He goes into the other room after dressing and sees Hotch looking in the mirror. He walks over to see what he looks like.

The men stand together looking in the mirror and then look at each other and give out a good laugh.

"I wonder if there is anything to eat here?"

"Let's go find out. I do hope it's not baby food."

"Me too, but I am hungry enough for anything."

More chuckling is heard as they shuffle off to the kitchen to search the cabinets for food.


	3. Food and Cribs

Untitled

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter Three. Food and Cribs

In the kitchen, the men begin to open cabinets and find canned foods and vegetables. There appears to be a lot of peaches, apricots and pears in the cans of fruits. There is cans of creamed corn, peas, beets, green beans and carrots. They pull down some cans that they want to eat. There is no way to heat up the vegetables so they eat them unheated. In another cabinet there are many boxes of enriched powdered milk along with boxes of cream of wheat and cream of rice. They decide not to open anything up from these boxes. The refrigerator and walk-in freezer were empty. They found bowls and spoons to eat with but there were no forks or knives and no plates. There were plastic and tin cups in the cupboard with handles and covers with openings to drink from on them. There was also a cupboard of glass baby bottles and rubber nipples. Pulling down two cups with handles, they took the covers off of them and filled them with water. They headed into the dining room with their food and drink and sat down at one of the tables.

After eating, they decide to check out their clothes to see if they were dry, but everything seemed to be damp yet. They checked out the window and still saw the snow coming down. The phone in the office was not working and their cell phones were not working either. Spencer showed Aaron some of the files that he had been reading about the place and the people who used to live and work there.

Aaron asked, "Did you find anything interesting like why they shut it down?"

"It seems that several of the residents were murdered by one of the employees. A person who decided to put them out of their existence believing they were miserable. An investigation into the place showed that it had been happening over a period of twenty years and more than seventeen residents were killed by the same person. There is an aside in one of the files that they believe that the souls of the deceased are still here and walk around moving things and making things wet or even shredding things."

"Sounds like they had a serial killer and what happened to that person?"

"That person also died here at the hands of one of the more dangerous residents. Although most people here were not dangerous or threatening to others, they did have some who were a little psychotic but there were never more than thirty residents here at one time and there were 15 employees at the end."

"What else did you find out?"

"The place has a caretaker that comes once a month to run the water pipes and dust the place. It's why there is electricity and not gas. There is electricity for the lights and appliances but no need to cook or even turn the heat on. The heating system is oil based boiler. We have to go down to the basement and turn the boiler on to turn the heat on if we want to really warm up."

"Let's head down there then. I could really use a warm up."

"Me too."

They return to the office after being down in the basement and turning on the boiler. It will take a little time for warmth to fully go through the house and make it comfortable. By the time they had finished in the basement, the sun had gone down and it was getting late in the day. They got something more to eat and went back to the office to read more about the people who used to live and work there.

It was when Hotch looked up and saw Reid try to stifle a yawn that he says, "Why don't we see if there is someplace where we might get some sleep?"

"You sure? I don't want to push you into doing that if you don't want to."

"Come on and let's go search the upstairs rooms. We have been in all of the rooms down here and there is no place to sleep."

They head up the stairs to the second floor and take the keys that were in the office downstairs to open the gate onto the floor. There appears to be six doors heading down the hall; three on each side. Spencer went into the first door on the left while Aaron went to the right. They met again in the hall and went to the second doors and then the third doors before talking about it as Aaron took Spencer into the room that the third door went into. There were several small tables and short couches and sitting chairs spread around the place, at one wall was a nineteen inch television hanging on the wall and shelves below with blocks, dolls, cars and trucks all along them. Along another wall was a long radiator that was behind a gate and below the barred windows. There were also pillows and play mats spread around the room. The men sit down.

"Well Spencer, did you find what I found in the rooms?"

"I found beds but I don't want to sleep in them. In the first room were four beds which looked more like adult cribs as they had metal bars all around them and the bars were on rails on both sides of the bed. There were a few nightstand style tables some that had pictures and personal stuff on them. The second and third rooms were identical to the first in that they had four adult cribs."

"I saw that as well in the two rooms that I was in. It seems that is what the residents slept in and I don't think that we are going to find anything different in the rooms on the third floor."

"Hotch! I don't want to sleep in a crib."

"It is one of those cribs or the floor; the couches in here are too short for either of us."

"But it just seems weird. I mean here we are dressed like small children and now deciding whether to sleep in a bed designed for a small child."

"We don't have to put the rails up on the bed. We can leave them down and it should be like a bed with a headboard and footboard."

"I don't know, it still feels funny about sleeping in one of them."

"You can always sleep on the floor."

"But the floor is hard; there is not even any carpeting."

"Those are the choices we have."

"Yeah, but I don't like either choice."

"You know that sometimes happens."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't mean I have to like it."

Aaron chuckles at the petulance on his young co-workers face. The men head into one of the rooms and check out the 'cribs' closer to see if they can sleep in them without the rails up. They want to make it so that they feel less like a crib and more like an actual bed. It seems that one of the rails only goes down partway and stays partially up to protect the sleeping person inside and keep them from rolling out of the bed. The other side does go down to the mattress; the men guess that it is for easy in and out of bed and changing or caring for the individual. They each choose a bed next to one another and climb in. They have found clean sheets and blankets in the linen room downstairs and made the cribs up and after looking at each other again climb into the crib. Aaron turned off the overhead light and climbed in and snuggled under the blanket because it was still a little chilly in the air and his nose was cold.

"Good night Reid."

"'Night Hotch. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

"Let's hope that the place doesn't have any."

"You think it might?" He sits up and looks over.

"Lie down and go to sleep Reid. There are no bugs."

Spencer looks over and sees Aaron lying down and so he does so as well and snuggles under the blanket to sleep.


	4. Falling

The Sanitarium

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter Four. Falling

He was walking through the house with his gun drawn checking out the rooms and yelling 'Clear'. He enters the back bedroom and sees the body lying on the bed; blood having spurt everywhere. Usually he doesn't allow it to affect him but he is cold and hungry and disappointed that once again they were too late to save the victim. He continues to search the room and then heads back to the hall where he is looking for the rest of the team and doesn't see them. He begins to get concerned as he searches through the house and it seems to be as empty as his life is. He once again enters the room with the bloody victim and instead of seeing the victim he sees a body on its stomach. He goes closer and gently turns the body over and sees his face staring back at him, the eyes were open, stab wounds to the abdomen, his left hand severed with its wedding band on the ring finger, the lips begin to move.

It says, "It was all your fault, your fault, your fault…."

In his mind, he screams no.

But he begins to be disturbed by the moaning all around and suddenly there is a great thump which wakes him up completely from the nightmare he was having. He sits up and looks around, not completely realizing that he was cold and lying in a large wet spot. He looks around and sees a body crumpled on the floor next to the bed on the side of him.

He cries out, "Reid!"

He jumps off his bed and rushes to the young man's side. He gently turns the man over and sees the blood flowing from a cut on the forehead where it hit the edge of the leg of the crib on the way down. The mattress is forty-two inches off the hard tiled floor. The young man seems to still be asleep as he continues to thrash on the floor. Aaron works to wake him up gently in order to not create more injuries. The thrashing begins to slow down until they finally stop and Dr. Spencer Reid finally realizes that he is on the floor being tightly held by his boss. He begins to squirm and Aaron loosens his grip and finally lets him go.

"Are you okay Reid?"

"What has happened Hotch?"

"You were having a bad dream and began to thrash around and fell out bed." He held up three fingers on his hand and asks, "How many fingers do you see?"

"There are three of them but they are a little fuzzy." He swayed a little and Aaron grabbed at the man again to steady him.

"You have a cut on your forehead. I am going to go see about finding a bandage and something to clean the cut with. Will you be okay sitting here?"

"Yeah, I'll be okay." He sways again and Aaron gently lies the man down on the floor again. He stands up and walks out of the room to the nurses' office to find a first-aid kit. He didn't notice that his sleeper was wet and that he was cold because of his concern for his colleague. Spencer noticed the sleeper when he glanced over at his boss leaving the room and wondered how it got that way. He reached up to the cut on his head which was still bleeding and swayed again from becoming slightly dizzy.

It seemed to take forever but was actually only five minutes when Hotch returned with the first aid kit and knelt down by Reid's side. He took the washcloth that he wet in the sink and began to clean the wound on the young man's face. Spencer winced but didn't cry out. He did make a small noise when Aaron took the alcohol swab and disinfected the cut.

"Sorry, don't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay, it just stings a little."

"Well, it's gonna do that. The good thing is that it is not too deep and should heal rather quickly. Are you still feeling dizzy?"

"Just a little but I feel colder than anything else."

The older man chuckled as he put a bandage on the man's cut.

"Let's get off this cold floor and get you back into bed." He put his arm around Spencer's waist and the two men pushed off the floor. Spencer sat down on his bed reeling a bit from becoming a little dizzy on the way up.

"Do you need a drink or something else that I can get you?"

"No, I don't want to take anything for the pain."

"Are you in a lot of pain Spencer?"

"Not as bad as some pains but it hurts a lot."

"It won't hurt to take an aspirin for the pain and I think that you should have one so that you can get back to sleep."

"I don't want…." The man bends his head down and holds it in his hands. Aaron leaves him and goes to the drug cabinet in the nurses' station to see if he can find some aspirin for the man. It only takes a few minutes when he is back with some pills and a full glass of water. Spencer is lying down on the bed curled up in a fetus position. Aaron places the glass and pills on the table next to the bed and smooth's Spencer's head.

"Come on and sit up and take the aspirin Spencer."

"I don't wanna," he whines.

"Don't give me a hard time about this Spencer. I want you to get back to sleep quickly and you can't do that if your head hurts." Spencer opens his eyes and looks at his boss looking at him sternly but with concern on his face. He slowly moves to sit up and after a few tries and some help from Aaron he is sitting on the bed and taking the pills with the glass of water. After which Aaron helps the man lie back down.

"Go back to sleep Spencer. I am going to clean myself up; somehow I sat in or brushed up against something very wet. I am going to change my sleeper and I will be back soon. If you need anything just scream."

Spencer nods his head and curls up under the blanket.

Aaron leaves the room and heads back downstairs to the dressing room where he grabs another sleeper in his size to change into. He goes into the place where their clothes are hanging on the line and still finds them to be quite damp. It puzzles him as to why. The building is beginning to warm up a little.

He is halfway to the room with clean linens for his bed when he hears a thump once again. He runs to the room and sees Spencer curled up on the floor next to his bed.

"Spencer!" He rushes over to the man and once again begins to check him over for any new cuts and injuries, thankfully there wasn't any but he looks with concern at his young colleague who did not wake up this time. "Spencer. Spencer."

Eventually the man opens his eyes again and is looking at his boss looking down on him. "What is it now Hotch?"

"You fell out of bed again."

"What!" He sits up and then begins to wobble from dizziness of going too fast.

"Come on and let's get you back into bed." He puts his arm around the man's waist and helps him stand up and then get on the bed. He moves him into a lying down position and covers him up with the blanket. Spencer is asleep again before he has the blanket under his chin. He slightly hesitates before leaving the bed and then turns back to the bed and moves to put the rail half way up.

Out loud to no-one he says, "I don't want to hear another thump of you falling on the floor."

He turns back to his own bed and changes the linens before getting in and curling up under the blanket to fall back to sleep himself.


End file.
